Part of our upcoming program this weekend, all centered around music concerned with the effects of war, is Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 4 in f minor. The symphony was premiered in April of 1935, and was given its US premiere by the Cleveland Orchestra in December of that same year. Vaughan Williams insisted that the work be regarded as pure music, without any incidental or external inspiration. Later, in the ’40s, it became saddled with the foreshadowing of the rise of fascism. While I’m not sure if RVW was just being disingenuous, or if later critics did the work an injustice, it is often seen that composers are immersed in the events of their time, and whatever the zeitgeist of the moment, it will eventually work its way out of their heads and on to the page.
All of that aside, this piece is, in the words of OSO music director Carlos Kalmar “like being hit by a bus”. The sprawling last movement, which comes without pause after the scampering and schizoid scherzo, has some of the toughest passagework that I’ve encountered in a ‘normal’ symphony. At this point in the piece, pretty much every instrument in the orchestra is going apeshit (pardon the expression).
Tickets will be going fast for this weekend’s two concerts: Saturday evening at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Click here for further information and ticket ordering online.
4 replies on “greatest symphony you’ve never heard”
Wow, people must think it sounds terrible, because there are no comments… This is making me very nervous, indeed…
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OK, as a violist with a lot of years of amateur experience (and a couple of years of pro.) I’m used to Vaughan Williams being way more tonal. With a whole orchestra engaged in fierce noodling like this example I get the idea that maybe the composer had an ulterior motive: Write notes that are impossible to play 100% accurately and the result will be structured randomness. In Arvo Paert’s Credo he notated big black bars across the staff for upper strings to play random high register sounds as loud as possible. I wouldn’t want people to think I would use this as an excuse to play sloppily, though!
i’m hoping to join y’all on sat. night.
among the few pieces that i DEEPLY wish i could have written is rvw’s “fantasia on a theme of thomas tallis.” i NEVER tire of hearing it.
i don’t know the 4th other than a brief listen many years ago and relish the opportunity to check it out for real.
thanx.